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Monday, October 26, 2009

The circus is coming to town! The circus is coming! I really am that excited about it. When Austin was a little kid, he was obsessed with animals and elephants in particular. He had a collection of these hard, plastic animals that he played with. Well, come to think of it, he didn't actually play with them so much as he categorized them. Gray ones, white ones, green ones... Or maybe small ones, medium ones, big ones... Or perhaps, animals with 4 legs, with 2 legs, with no legs... He'd categorize and line them up, then he'd change them around and line them up in a different way.

In fact, thinking of those plastic animals reminds of the one year Austin asked for a warthog for Christmas. That's all he wanted, a toy warthog. He wrote to Santa and asked him for just that one thing. I looked high and low for a warthog. This was way back before I owned a computer so I couldn't just browse the net, not that the thought had even occurred to me at the time.

We used to have these neat learning-type toy stores around here that sold the plastic animals and I drove to every one of them in search of a toy warthog. I couldn't find one anywhere.

I asked Austin, "Are you sure you want a warthog? How about some nice Legos? Or some Matchbox cars? Wouldn't you like a set of art supplies? Or a car? Or a house? Or a million dollars? Anything but a warthog???"

I called the Brookfield Zoo, Lincoln Park Zoo, The Milwaukee Zoo. I figured if any of them said they had a warthog, I'd take a road trip, pay admission for the day and buy the stinking toy. No one had a warthog. Finally, I found one at the San Diego Zoo. The person on the other end of the phone thought it was the strangest request she'd ever heard. "We don't ship items from our gift stores," she informed me. After I regaled her with my warthog saga, she said she would personally ship it to me. Thanks to her, Austin was one happy kid come Christmas morning when he found a plastic warthog in his stocking.

Wow, did I digress! As I was saying, Austin was obsessed with elephants back in the day. He watched Dumbo so many times, the tape broke. So when the circus came to town, we took him there for his 4th birthday. I can still see the look on his face as he beheld all the wonder and magic of the "greatest show on earth".

We haven't been back since. Guess where we're going for his 15th birthday? That's right! I'm really excited about Ringling Bros. latest show, Zing Zang Zoom because it combines magic with the circus and looks like tons of fun!

And for my readers, I have a coupon code for you! Use the code - MOM to get a 4 pack of tickets (good for Monday-Friday matinee shows) for only $44! This code is also good for $4 off Friday and weekend shows. You can get additional tickets for $11.

Opening night is November 5th at 7:00pm at the AllState Arena in Rosemont

and

November 18th at 7:00pm at The United Center in Chicago

But that's not it! I have a 4 pack of tickets for opening night at The United Center to give away to one lucky family! Leave me a comment and I'll pick a random winner on Friday! Please make sure you're available for the 7:00pm show on November 18th in Chicago before leaving me a comment. And the coupon code is good for everyone interested in shows at either location!

*I was given free tickets to the circus in exchange for my post, but my opinions are entirely my own.

Austin was a sorter? I have a 4-year-old sorter!! We buy him a bag of Skittles at the ball game and he sorts them to teams. One bag will last during 2 whole hs bball games. I've been known to pack them up and take them with us for the next game - cuz he won't eat them. We had a giant bag of Starburst once that he went wild with. Then he started unwrapping them all and sorting them that way. I'm really glad to know someone else's kid who isn't autistic did it. Thanks!

Ok, fingers crossed you wrote that story in your book somewhere or else I'm starting to have Dawn deja vu :)

GREAT cake (as always). You are really on top of it! I love the circus -- can't wait to take the wee ones to see it. Of course, they currently think that the UC is "a restaurant where Mickey and Minnie live" but hey, what can ya do?

That's great! We love the circus and I haven't been since I was little that's for sure. It's going to have to wait however for getting tickets. When they come back to St. Louis though...we just might have to make a trip. :D

I really hope things have settled down for you hon. (hugs) Great to see ya. <3

Oh, really, please pick the number for my post! We have an annual tradition of going to the circus and money is so tight this year that I just don't know about it... But, this would be SO great - even without Bello (who left RB&BB to be back in NY). My 6yo was 2 when we first went and she was in awe watching the tight-rope walkers walk through rings of fire. She was adament about THAT was what she would do when she grows up. Now this is my daughter who is a lot like your Clay, so would THAT surprise you? (If you knew her, it wouldn't. But you know your own son, so I'm sure it wouldn't anyway.)

I thought I was the only mom who went on a warthog search. My daughter , who is 21 now, wanted a warthog for her third birthday. Like you, I search high and low. My sister-in-law finally found one(I don't know were; at the time I didn't care). It was a stuffed PINK warthog , about 18" long(big), that mad a warthog snort when you squeeze it's belly. Where does the time go?

Oh, money is SO tight right now and I really haven't had the chance to do many extra activities with the kids lately...we are happy just to be surviving. I'd LOVE to win those tickets and take my little ones to the circus!!!

Dawn,We just took our son to see the Zing Zang Zoom show here in Denver, and he LOVED it. Granted, he's 4, but they do this whole segment called "Don't Try This At Home," and he still talks about it. You'll have a blast.

My son, Andrew has always loved going too. He is now 10 years old and we both have wonderful memories of past years. I would love to be able to take Andrew this year, if we were to win! Hope that everyone is feeling better!

Thanks for this post. I have a son that does things that sometimes seem "autistic," and it's so nice to hear of someone else who is relatively normal (within the bounds of teenage-hood, I'm sure) and just acts that way because he's smart and thinks differently than most of us!

This would be a great surprise birthday gift for my niece who will turn 6 on Thanksgiving. My sisters' family rarely go out as they are barely living paycheck to paycheck. Thanks for having this give away!